‘How are you?’ It’s something we’re asked countless times a day by friends, family and colleagues, and the resounding response is usually along the lines of, ‘I feel tired.’ One of the many outcomes of the upheavals of the past year and the uncertainty of the months ahead is a feeling of perpetual tiredness and that fatigue is written all over our faces as dullness, dark circles and angry, misbehaving skin.
“This ongoing situation is having numerous indirect effects on our skin,” says Dr Anjali Mahto, a consultant dermatologist at Skin55 in London. “Many of us are suffering from increased levels of stress and anxiety, which means that not only are we feeling mentally tired, but levels of baseline chronic stress are affecting sleep patterns, resulting in physical tiredness and impacting the stress hormone, cortisol, aggravating any pre-existing skin conditions.”